New smartphone player boasts speed ‘faster than faster’

MANILA, Philippines – Mumbai is as busy and as chaotic a city as Manila. The traffic jam knows no hour. At 10 p.m., you can be stuck in an intersection going to a hotel only 2.5 kms. away from the airport. In the morning, you’ll see what everyone says about India and its medley of colors – murals and graffiti are everywhere, and the women walk the streets in saris of different shades, textures, and prints. Meanwhile, black birds – crows, pigeons – hover above.

You can’t help but appreciate the city’s contrasts: the silent temples and the over-excited tourists flocking outside; the world-class infrastructure and the old ruins; the technology and the traditions. There’s so much going on that you won’t know exactly where to train your eyes on.

It only makes sense that a line of smartphones claiming to be “faster than faster” is unveiled here. No matter how strange it sounds, the Vivo V3 and V3 Max tagline emphasizes the brand’s main advantage over its competitors: speed (which, after all, is the name of the game for this generation). And you can test how fast it truly is – in capturing moments as they happen, in letting you share them, and in recharghing the gadget before it completely dies on you  – in a city that’s bursting with life and character.

Last year, Vivo scored big when it was named title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL). A quick backgrounder: the IPL, in fact cricket in general, is like a religion in India. They’re all obsessed with it. The ongoing partnership is a testament to Vivo’s commitment to be among the top players in the industry. IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla recognized this during the launch of the V3 and V3 Max earlier this month, adding that Vivo’s faster-than-faster philosophy is going to be popular among the youth.

For starters, the V series can be unlocked in 0.5 seconds with the touch of a finger. Its fingerprint touch technology relieves the user of the hassle of drawing patterns or keying in numbers (which are easily discernible anyway). By the time you’ve typed the fourth digit of your security code to get to the camera app, the cute Bollywood star has already left the building.

A pet peeve among smartphone users (i.e. all of us) is the lag or unresponsiveness caused by third party applications and a small RAM. Vivo’s solution to this is a 4GB RAM, a portion of which is dedicated to the camera. That means you can launch the camera in 0.7 seconds, and guess what, it only takes 0.2 seconds to focus on an image. No more missed moments now.

Unless your smartphone runs out of juice. We all dread the “low batt” sign and where others aim for longer battery life, Vivo tries to do the same and then some. The V series has dual-charging engines to double the charging speed. In other words, five minutes of charging can give you two hours of music.

Since the smartphone has become an entertainment tool as well, any form of delay or interruption will automatically make us grumpy. To address this, Vivo creates the Smart Split. With this, you can watch Slumdog Millionaire on one side of the screen, respond to a text message on the other side, then turn the movie back into full screen for a better viewing experience – no need to re-buffer.

The Vivo V3 Max runs an Android OS, has a, 5.5” FHD display, 4GB RAM/32GB ROM, and is priced at 23,980 Rupees (roughly P17,000); while the Vivo V3 runs an Android OS, has a 5” HD display, 3GB RAM/32GB ROM, and costs 17,980 Rupees (roughly P13,000). Both models will arrive on our shores this week (prices to be announced).

It’s easy to see why Vivo is popular is India. It looks sassy – the V3 and V3 Max have a metallic frame and Gorilla Glass; it’s affordable; and it has all these features. I can imagine the smartphone being embraced here as well, just for its price, storage capacity, and camera features – aren’t we the No. 1 selfie-taking country? Rajeev was right. It’s appealing to the young. I know I’d like to take those model phones from Mumbai to Manila.